Constructing Sustainable Consumption

2012 ◽  
Vol 644 (1) ◽  
pp. 236-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas B. Holt
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Unintended Consequence ◽  
Bottled Water ◽  
Water Market ◽  
Ethical Values ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Consumer Value ◽  
Lock In ◽  
The Way

Twenty years of major policy and activist interventions that seek to promote sustainable consumption have been guided by what I term the ethical values paradigm, despite that this paradigm has significant conceptual flaws and has not produced impressive results. This article critiques the ethical values paradigm and proposes an alternative by adapting the market constructionist paradigm. The author analyzes the development of the American market for bottled water and demonstrates that this unsustainable consumption is an unintended consequence of the construction of a consumption ideology that is specific to the bottled water market, what the author terms ideological lock-in. This model explains why activist interventions have not worked and points the way toward more effective strategies. The author argues that we should reallocate the vast government, NGO, and foundation sustainability investments from promoting consumer value transformations toward a federation of market-focused social movements aimed at leapfrogging the ideological lock-in in key unsustainable markets.

scholarly journals Crafting the market for bottled water: a social praxeology approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 327-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinicius Brei ◽  
Mark Tadajewski
Keyword(s):  
Exponential Growth ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Symbolic Capital ◽  
Bottled Water ◽  
Water Market ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Consumer Value ◽  
The Social

Purpose – This paper aims to account for the crafting of the constellation of brand and consumer values around an everyday product, that of bottled water. This paper situates the exponential growth of this market in its historical and cultural context, paying particular attention to the fostering of the “social conditions of possibility” for this product in the French market. The socio-historical context and the interplay of stakeholders to the respondents’ understanding and uses of bottled water, highlighting the importance of a range of factors that made this market and product resonate with their requirements, are linked. Design/methodology/approach – This account responds to the call for more engagement with social theory in marketing and consumer research (Brownlie and Hewer, 2011). It also connects with recent scholarly pleas for a displacement of the consumer from the center of our analytic attention (Askegaard and Linnet, 2011; Holt, 2012). It does so by using the social praxeology approach associated with Pierre Bourdieu to study the affirmation and sedimentation of the practices surrounding the consumption of bottled water in France. Findings – Influential institutional actors invoked discourses of purity, nature and health, juxtaposing these with the risks of tap water consumption. These were cemented by the influence of pediatricians who encouraged changes in family drinking habits which translated into long-term shifts in consumer behavior. By contrast to studies of different contexts, our respondents were greatly enamored by the materiality of the products themselves, using these in innovative ways for aesthetic pursuits. The social praxeology approach uncovers how brand and consumer value have been constructed in the French bottled water market. Research limitations/implications – This study is based on the historical development and growth of the market for bottled water in France. It would be a valuable exercise to investigate other contexts to determine whether the strategies of symbolic competition, especially the use of expert intermediaries rich in cultural capital that can be identified, are reflected elsewhere. Practical implications – Bottled water producers will have to confront the issue of the resource-intensiveness of their products. This feature stands in marked contrast to the symbolic capital and points of differentiation that producers have weaved around bottled water. Such contradictions will be exposed by actors in other fields (e.g. the environmental movement). This can be expected to have an impact on the consumption and viability of this market in future. Originality/value – This paper uses a philosophical framework – social praxeology – to chart the development, affirmation and exponential growth of the bottled water market. Via a combination of historical re-construction and empirical research, it highlights the interactive relationships between government, producers and consumers, uncovering brand and consumer value creation.

Reading a water menu: Bottled water and the cultivation of taste

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Biro
Keyword(s):  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Market Segmentation ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Bottled Water ◽  
Water Market ◽  
Anthropogenic Influence ◽  
Social Character ◽  
The Social

The market for bottled water is growing and increasingly segmented. How do we explain not just the willingness to pay for a substance (water) that is almost free but also the increasing discernment in a drink generally considered tasteless? We argue that bottled water market segmentation is a leading edge of processes of water commodification, associated with the crisis of Fordism and rise of consumerist capitalism, where the assertion of status through commodity consumption is increasingly necessary. The extensive Ray’s & Stark water menu is analyzed to show how the taste for bottled waters is cultivated. In the menu, references to gustatory sensation are limited. Instead, the tastefulness of water inheres in the distance from anthropogenic influence, made visible through scientific (geological) discourses. The tension between the desire to consume unmediated nature and the scientific abstraction necessary to recognize it reveals the social character of the taste for bottled waters. The highly refined sense of taste that the water menu’s readers are presumed to have is a reflection of consumerist capitalism’s distinctive ways of reproducing socio-economic inequality and metabolizing non-human nature.

Indigenous Peoples, Social Movements, and the Legacy of Hugo Chávez’s Governments

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 180-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis F. Angosto-Ferrández
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Population ◽  
Indigenous Movement ◽  
The Way

The unprecedented enfranchisement of Venezuela’s indigenous population is partly a result of the formation of a state-sponsored indigenous movement. This movement prioritizes access to social services, economic development, and political participation in state structures over certain goals of free determination. Other forms of collective action with different priorities are evidence of the existence of diverging interests and goals among indigenous people. These divergences are a reflection of the way in which the indigenous population partakes in the shaping of contemporary Venezuelan politics. La inclusión social de las comunidades indígenas de Venezuela no tiene precedentes y se debe, en parte, a la formación de movimientos indígenas auspiciados por el estado. Estos movimientos le dan prioridad al acceso a los servicios sociales, al desarrollo económico y a la participación política en las estructuras estatales por encima de ciertas metas de libre determinación. Otras formas de acción colectiva con prioridades diferentes revelan la presencia/existencia de intereses y objetivos divergentes entre las comunidades indígenas. Estas diferencias son un reflejo de la manera en que las poblaciones indígenas participan en la formación de la política venezolana contemporánea.

scholarly journals A Study on the History of the Korean Bottled Water Market

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-161
Author(s):  
Donghyun Yoon ◽  
왕차오 ◽  
이병희
Keyword(s):  
Bottled Water ◽  
Water Market ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals The Funny Side of Globalization: Humour and Humanity in Zapatista Framing

2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (S15) ◽  
pp. 21-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Olesen
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Subcomandante Marcos ◽  
The Way

This article argues that the literature on social movements and globalization has not paid sufficient attention to the way in which political actors who act globally try to overcome the social, cultural, and political distances that separate them. It introduces the concept of global framing to give focus to the discursive processes central to such “distance bridging”. In particular, it emphasizes how symbols and emotions are crucial in the framing of distance. Empirically, it discusses how the considerable global resonance created by the Zapatistas in Mexico is facilitated by a framing strategy, carried out mainly by the movement's spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos, in which humour, imperfection, and symbols play a decisive role.

Social Innovation Practices in Services for Sustainable Consumption

2017 ◽  
pp. 32-65
Author(s):  
Banu Atrek ◽  
Burcu İlter
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Emerging Economy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Innovations ◽  
The Future ◽  
Innovation Practices ◽  
The Way

Overconsumption is fueled by the idea that the more people buy, the happier they become; however, this is not compatible with sustainability and the future of the planet. Deep concerns about the sustainability of nature and natural resources give rise to discussions of sustainable consumption, and social innovation applications may lead the way to sustainable consumption. Thus, this chapter aims to provide a picture of social innovation practices in services for sustainable consumption in an emerging economy. Although the chapter focuses mainly on contemporary social innovations, an overview of the social innovation concept and possible historical roots of social innovations from Turkish history are also provided.

Modernizing Legacy Systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-60
Author(s):  
Aparna Vijaya ◽  
Neelanarayanan Venkataraman
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Computing ◽  
Legacy Systems ◽  
Pilot Projects ◽  
Model Driven ◽  
Low Costs ◽  
Lock In ◽  
Model Driven Approach ◽  
Cloud Applications ◽  
The Way

Cloud computing is a paradigm which has changed the way organizations develop, manage, and deploy their applications. Most of the resources are available at low costs in this technology and it creates new opportunities for organizations to move their existing applications to the cloud for modernization. But this modernization also comes at a price. The authors present a model-driven approach to address the challenges in application modernization and focus on the application migration to cloud. Most of the cloud applications are very specific to a particular vendor's features or services. The proposed methodology addresses the challenge of vendor lock-in also. The authors present their theoretical details and experience with two pilot projects where they have applied the proposed approach.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document